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Hello all, Frosting chick here. As you may or may not have gathered by now, I’m not a big user or fan of shaped pans. I guess they kind of come in handy, as far as a decorating guide, especially when making trade marked characters, but over all, I’m a carving kind of girl. That got reaffirmed recently, when I had an order for a doll cake. You know the ones, the cake part is shaped like a ball gown, and folks usually use some cheap/chintzy doll picks for the rest of the babe. Well, first of all, I hate the picks. I like using the full bodied doll. Now, with my extensive (read: ONE doll cake) experience, I thought I should give the shaped pan a try. I’ve had it for almost a year now, and finally got an order for a doll cake, so what the heck? If I had to choose one word for the experience, it would be (#)@&*#$(*&%)#(*(*@!!!!! screamed loudly at this miserable failure. I’m not denying that there could be some operator error here, but damn, it shouldn’t be this bad!

Now, this is after an HOUR of baking. Yes, an hour. Used my trusty cake tester, it came out clean. How could I have misread a thin metal wire that gets stuck into cake? “Impossible!” I say, but apparently not. I sat the cake out to cool, walked by about 20 minutes later, and the above is what I found. CRAP! what to do!?!?! I did what any resourceful young lady would do, I slapped that sucker back in the oven. Alas, ’twas all in vain. Thought I could at least salvage the cone part, but that’s where all the unbaked batter had sunk to. It’s currently back in the oven, if nothing else, I can feed the fam some failure cake. And that was not meant to be either. I mean, I love my family, couldn’t possibly let them near it, no matter how much the hubby clapped in delight at the thought of cake in the house…

I mean, it’s not like I haven’t done a doll cake before…..

but it was 4 round cakes and carved. I really REALLY wanted this pan to work. I hate having something around, especially something cake related, that I’m not using.

Side note: Fondant chick is at this very moment reading this, grasping at her string of pearls and fanning herself at the blasphemy I’m spewing. She loves her some shaped pans and has quite the collection. She could open her own “Shaped Cake Pan” museum (and cakery) with just what she has tucked away in her cake closet (and I’m not sure that the “man of the house” is even aware of her addiction). She’s got a mean “shaped pan radar”, the likes of which I’ve never seen. We went yard sale-ing last spring and that girl was on it! We had pans out the ying-yang. I frequently receive e-mails (while I’m stuck in my cubicle furiously pounding away on the computer for the man) of her latest pan acquisitions, it’s crazy!

Alright, onward and upward. I’ve baked new cakes, have them carved, covered, and ready to go.

Thanks to the powers that be that invented adjustable shelves in a ‘fridge! Much better than that stupid, ignorant, icky shaped pan. Which, by the way, while I REALLY wanted to take a hammer to that sucker out in my driveway, I have found it a nice home, with another home baker. I warned her how much I hate it & the problems I had with it, and she’s graciously accepted it anyway. Kind of reminds me of the old joke “EW, this is horrible, taste this!”, but instead was more like “Hey, I have this doll pan, and I hate it, want it?” she – “Sure, how much do you want for it?” me – “Just take the damn thing. It sucks and I don’t like it.” I guess one cakers hate is another cakers treasure.

So, how about you? Got any cake horror stories you’d like to share?

PS: Fondant chick and I are heading to the home show tomorrow, will hopefully get to meet Mary Alice and Geof Manthorne from “Ace of Cakes”. Wish us luck!